Egypt's army chief to host national unity talks as thousands descend on Cairo

Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi demonstrate in Cairo on Dec. 11.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

Updated at 5:12 p.m. ET -- Egypt's army chief called for talks on national unity to end the country's deepening political crisis after a vital loan from the IMF was delayed and as thousands of opponents and supporters of Egypt's Islamist president flocked to key locations in the nation's capital four days before a nationwide referendum on a contentious draft constitution.

The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

"We will not speak about politics nor about the referendum. Tomorrow we will sit together as Egyptians," armed forces chief and Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said at a joint gathering of army and police officials.

An aide said President Mohammed Morsi had supported the call for talks. The Muslim Brotherhood announced it would be there, while the main opposition coalition said it would decide on Wednesday morning whether to attend.

Outside the presidential palace - where anti-Morsi protesters are demanding the Islamist postpone the vote on a constitution they say does not represent all Egyptians - there was skepticism tinged with some hope.

"Talks without the cancellation of the referendum - and a change to the constitution to make it a constitution for all Egyptians and not the Brotherhood - will lead to nothing and will be no more than a media show," said Ahmed Hamdy, a 35-year-old office worker.

But the fact that the army was calling such talks "is an indication to all parties that the crisis is coming to a head and that they need to end it quickly," he said.

The demonstrators began to gather just hours after masked assailants set upon opposition protesters staging a sit-in at Tahrir Square, firing birdshot and swinging knives and sticks, according to security officials. At least 11 protesters were wounded in the pre-dawn attack, according to a Health Ministry spokesman quoted by the official MENA news agency.?It was unclear who was behind the pre-dawn attack.

The violence stoked tensions ahead of the mass demonstrations in Cairo by supporters and opponents of Morsi over the disputed draft constitution. The charter has deeply polarized the nation and triggered some of the worst violence since Morsi took office in June as Egypt's first freely elected president.

Egypt is rapidly approaching its own 'cliff'

Protests are also planned elsewhere in Egypt, including the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and Suez to the east of Cairo.

The latest spate of violence in Egypt has divided the country into two camps: Morsi, his Muslim Brotherhood and ultraorthodox Salafis on the one side, and liberals, leftists and Christians, on the other.

The Tahrir protesters belong to the liberal opposition, which claims the draft of the charter restricts freedoms and gives Islamists vast influence over the running of the country. The draft, hurriedly adopted late last month in a marathon session by a constituent assembly dominated by the president's Islamist allies, is going to a nationwide referendum on Saturday.

In a further twist, Egypt's largest union of judges?voted overwhelmingly?on Tuesday afternoon?to boycott supervising polling stations, which will likely cast significant doubt on the referendum's integrity, NBC News reported. ?

Despite President Morsi rescinding much of the decree he issued last month giving him near absolute authority, Egypt's opposition want the Islamist leader to cancel a referendum on a disputed draft of a new constitution. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

Cracks in the opposition?
The dispute has prompted hundreds of thousands of the president's opponents to take to the streets in massive rallies ? the largest from primarily secular groups since the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year. Morsi's supporters responded with huge demonstrations of their own, which led to clashes that left at least six people dead and hundreds wounded.

There have been at least two dozen attacks on offices of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, according to the group's leaders. Meanwhile, senior opposition figures, including former lawmakers, have been badly beaten by pro-Morsi Islamists.

PhotoBlog:?Protests in Egypt continue despite Morsi's concession

Also in Cairo, several hundred Islamists were camped out Tuesday outside a media complex that is home to several independent TV networks critical of Morsi and the Brotherhood. The Islamists have threatened to storm the complex.

/

Protesters dismantle a barbed wired fence guarding Cairo's presidential palace ahead of demonstrations on Tuesday evening.

With four days left before the referendum, the opposition has yet to decide whether to campaign for a "no" vote or call for a boycott ? something many see as a reflection of divisions within the opposition. The disparate opposition groups are led by reformist and Nobel Peace prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, Egypt's former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Moussa, and leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi.

'Men don't have to worry about being caught': Sex mobs target Egypt's women

Cracks in the opposition's unity first appeared last weekend when one of its leading figures, veteran opposition politician Ayman Nour, accepted an invitation by Morsi to attend a "national dialogue" meeting. On Monday, another key opposition figure, El-Sayed Badawi of the Wafd party, met Morsi at the presidential palace.

The opposition has rejected any dialogue with Morsi until he shelves the draft constitution and postpones the referendum. They had also demanded that Morsi rescind decrees giving him near absolute powers. He withdrew those powers on Saturday, but insisted that the referendum will go ahead as scheduled.

Anticipating unrest on the day of the referendum, Morsi has ordered the military to join the police in maintaining security and protecting state institutions until after the results of the vote are announced. The decree went into effect on Monday.

Egypt army gets temporary power to arrest civilians ahead of referendum

Egypt's army chief called for talks on national unity to end the country's deepening political crisis after a vital loan from the IMF was delayed.

The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

"We will not speak about politics nor about the referendum. Tomorrow we will sit together as Egyptians," armed forces chief and Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said at a joint gathering of army and police officials.

An aide said Mursi had supported the call for talks. The Muslim Brotherhood announced it would be there, while the main opposition coalition said it would decide on Wednesday morning whether to attend.

NBC News' Ayman Mohyeldin, Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/11/15842462-egypts-army-chief-to-host-national-unity-talks-as-thousands-descend-on-cairo?lite

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U.N. nuclear agency "ready" to go to Iran's Parchin site

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear inspectors would be ready to go to Iran's disputed Parchin military complex if the Islamic state were to allow it during talks in Tehran later this week, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believes Iran has conducted explosives tests with nuclear applications at Parchin, a sprawling facility southeast of Tehran, and has repeatedly asked for access.

Western diplomats say Iran has carried out extensive work at Parchin over the past year to cleanse it of any evidence of illicit activities, but IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said last week a visit would still be "useful".

Iran rejects accusations of a covert bid to develop the means and technologies needed to build nuclear arms and says Parchin is a conventional military site.

Thursday's talks in Tehran could indicate whether Iran is more willing to address international concerns over its atomic activities after U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election.

The stakes are high: Israel - widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed power - has threatened military action if diplomacy fails to prevent its arch-enemy acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran says it would hit back hard if attacked.

IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts, head of the team travelling to Iran, said the aim was to reach an agreement on outstanding issues "related to possible military dimensions" of Iran's nuclear program.

"We also hope that Iran will allow us to go to the site of Parchin," Nackaerts told journalists at Vienna airport before departing for Tehran.

"If Iran would grant us access, we would welcome that chance and we are ready to go," he said.

Western diplomats say they are not optimistic about a breakthrough in this week's discussions, since a series of meetings since January have failed to make any progress.

But they do not rule out that Iran, under tightening Western sanctions hurting its oil-dependent economy, will offer some concessions in an attempt to ease international pressure.

The IAEA wants Iran to allow its inspectors to visit sites, interview officials and study documents as part of an inquiry - largely stymied by Iranian stonewalling for four years - into suspected past, and possibly current, nuclear weapons research.

Iran says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and rejects international demands to curb nuclear activity that could have both civilian and military purposes.

It says it must reach a framework agreement on the inquiry with the IAEA before providing the requested access.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iaea-says-hopes-access-irans-parchin-115741563.html

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Roman settlement and possible prehistoric site uncovered in northern Italy

Dec. 11, 2012 ? Over the summer a team of faculty and students from University of Kentucky discovered evidence of not just one lost community, but two in northern Italy. Using their archaeological expertise and modern technology, data was collected indicating the existence of a Roman settlement and below that, a possible prehistoric site.

Many years ago, archaeologist and art historian Paolo Vison?, a native of northern Italy and adjunct associate professor of art history in the UK School of Art and Visual Studies at the UK College of Fine Arts, first learned of a possible ancient settlement from a farmer in Valbruna, near the village of Tezze di Arzignano. While working his family's land, Battista Carlotto had discovered artifacts that looked to Vison? like ceramics, mosaic, and glass of the Roman Empire.

Curiosity of what lay beneath the farmland was piqued in both gentlemen. With the approval of Carlotto and with little time to waste due to growing development in the area, Vison? began to research historical accounts of the region. Manuscripts found in Vicenza's Bertoliana Library confirmed Vison?'s suspicion; in the late 18th century witnesses had shared accounts of seeing a Roman city's remains in the vicinity.

Not wanting to disrupt Carlotto's working farm, Vison? had to find a way to find evidence of this community while not being invasive to the surroundings. That's when the expertise of colleague George Crothers, an associate professor of anthropology in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, came to mind. "George had the background to do the type of research that fit the characteristics of this new site, which had never been previously investigated to the extent we wanted."

"My involvement was to use geophysical techniques and geophysical instruments to find out what we could about architectural features at this site," Crothers said. "It had not been excavated, the geophysical techniques is one way to look below ground without disturbing it."

With Crothers' guidance, the UK team used a magnetometer and ground penetrating radar. A magnetometer measures variations in the magnetic intensity of the soil and can detect objects and features buried in the ground. The ground penetrating radar induces radar waves in the ground and reads the reflection.

Working with two students, Donald Handshoe and Justin Carlson, the UK team analyzed the equipment's readings to interpret their findings and create a map of what was below the surface.

First, the team confirmed what appeared to be evidence of a road and walls that indicated the presence of Roman buildings. According to the materials found on the surface and during farm work, the settlement could have existed more than 400 years from the first century B.C. to the third or fourth century A.D. The manuscript information indicated that it was very extensive.

"We had 500 years of information that was all scattered and never really put together or even looked at by scientists, which included some very detailed manuscript information by eyewitnesses who actually saw the Roman town on two different occasions when it was uncovered by flooding," Vison? said.

But as they "dug deeper" into their findings, the instruments' readings also revealed the presence of large circular features below the Roman site structures.

"The circular ones were a complete surprise -- this was totally unexpected because first of all they were large," Vison? said. "The radar told us those were much deeper than the structures with right angles, which had to be Roman. So we began to differentiate between them. Since the circular features preceded the Roman ones, they could only be prehistoric."

Based on their research, Vison? suggests that these features could be evidence of huts of an indigenous prehistoric population. Their settlements could date from the Neolithic to the late Bronze Age. The name of the ancient Roman town may have been Dripsinum. Ancient sources indicate that the Dripsinates, a sub-Alpine community, lived in this area of northern Italy.

In the future, the UK team hopes to return to do more research at the site. Currently, the UK group is working with the University of Venice Ca-Foscari, which is analyzing some of the materials found at the site.

Vison? and Crothers' trip was sponsored by a research support grant from the UK Office of the Vice President for Research. The team's stay was approved and supported by the city of Arzignano, Italy.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/mtxqGB23h1w/121211163510.htm

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Report: Asian economies will surpass US, Europe

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The United States could see its standing as a superpower eroded and Asian economies will outstrip those of North America and Europe combined by 2030, according to the best guess of the U.S. intelligence community in its latest forecast.

"The spectacular rise of Asian economies is dramatically altering ... U.S. influence," said Christopher Kojm, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, as it released the report Global Trends 2030 on Monday.

The report is the intelligence community's analysis of where current trends will take the world in the next 15 to 20 years. Its release was timed for the start of a new presidential administration and it is aimed at helping U.S. policymakers plan for the future.

The report also predicted the U.S. will be energy independent.

The study said that in a best-case scenario, Americans, together with nearly two-thirds of the world's population, will be middle class, mostly living in cities, connected by advanced technology, protected by advanced health care and linked by countries that work together, perhaps with the United States and China cooperating to lead the way.

Violent acts of terrorism will also be less frequent as the U.S. drawdown in troops from Iraq and Afghanistan robs extremist ideologies of a rallying cry to spur attacks. But that will likely be replaced by acts like cyber-terrorism, wreaking havoc on an economy with a keystroke, the study's authors say.

In countries where there are declining birth rates and an aging population like the U.S., economic growth may slow.

"Aging countries will face an uphill battle in maintaining living standards," Kojm said. "So too will China, because its median age will be higher than the U.S. by 2030."

The rising populations of disenfranchised youth in places like Nigeria and Pakistan may lead to conflict over water and food, with "nearly half of the world's population ... experiencing severe water stress," the report said. Africa and the Middle East will be most at risk, but China and India are also vulnerable.

That instability could lead to conflict and contribute to global economic collapse, especially if combined with rapid climate change that could make it harder for governments to feed global populations, the authors warn.

That's the grimmest among the "Potential Worlds" the report sketches for 2030. Under the heading "Stalled Engines," in the "most plausible worst-case scenario, the risks of interstate conflict increase," the report said. "The U.S. draws inward and globalization stalls."

"This is not inevitable," said lead study author Mathew Burrows. "In most cases, it's manageable if you take measures ... now."

Such steps could include decreasing wasting resources like water and increasing the efficiency of food production, he said.

Technology is seen as a potential savior to head off some of this conflict, boosting economic productivity to keep pockets filled despite rising populations, rapid growth of cities and climate change.

Hand in hand with technology is cooperation between the competing states, the authors say. In the most plausible best-case outcome, the report said, "China and the U.S. collaborate," heading off global competition for resources that can lead to all-out conflict.

The report warns of the mostly catastrophic effects of possible "Black Swans," extraordinary events that can change the course of history. These include a severe pandemic that could kill millions in a matter of months and more rapid climate change that could make it hard to feed the world's population.

Two positive events are also listed, including "a democratic China or a reformed Iran," which could bring more global stability.

One bright spot for the U.S. is energy independence.

"With shale gas, the U.S. will have sufficient natural gas to meet domestic needs and generate potential global exports for decades to come," the report said.

__________

On the web: www.dni.gov/nic/globaltrends

Dozier can be followed on Twitter (at)kimberlydozier.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-12-10-US-Intelligence-Global%20Trends/id-9918699451264be99c39016d552f0341

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Unknown attackers fire at Cairo protesters, nine hurt

CAIRO (Reuters) - Nine people were hurt when unknown attackers fired at protesters camping at Tahrir Square in central Cairo on Tuesday, according to witnesses and Egyptian media, as opponents and supporters of President Mohamed Mursi's plans to vote on a new constitution geared up for a day of street demonstrations.

Police cars surrounded the square, the first time they had appeared in the area since November 23, shortly after a decree by the Islamist president giving himself sweeping temporary powers touched off widespread protests.

The attackers also threw petrol bombs which started a small fire, witnesses said. Many of the protesters, awakened by the noise, chanted: "The people want the downfall of the regime." Recorded recitations of the Koran were played over speakers in the square.

Leftists, liberals and other opposition groups have called for marches to the presidential palace in the afternoon to protest against the hastily arranged referendum on a new constitution planned for Saturday, which they say is polarizing the country.

Islamists, who dominated the body that drew up the constitution, have urged their followers to turn out "in millions" the same day in a show of support for the president and for a referendum they feel sure of winning and that critics say could put Egypt in a religious straitjacket.

Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week in clashes between the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and opponents besieging Mursi's graffiti-daubed presidential palace.

The elite Republican Guard has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the palace, now ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades, but a decree issued by Mursi late on Sunday gives the armed forces the power to arrest civilians during the referendum and until the announcement of the results.

OPPOSITION SAYS MURSI DESTROYING CONSENSUS

Leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahy, one of the most prominent members of the National Salvation Front opposition coalition, said Mursi was driving a wedge between Egyptians and destroying prospects for consensus.

As well as pushing the early referendum, Mursi has angered opponents by taking sweeping temporary powers he said were necessary to secure the country's transition to stability after a popular uprising overthrew autocratic former president Hosni Mubarak 22 months ago.

"The road Mohamed Mursi is taking now does not create the possibility for national consensus," said Sabahy.

If the constitution was passed, he said: "Egypt will continue in this really charged state. It is certain that this constitution is driving us to more political polarization."

The National Salvation Front also includes Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

The opposition says the draft constitution fails to embrace the diversity of 83 million Egyptians, a tenth of whom are Christians, and invites Muslim clerics to influence lawmaking.

But debate over the details has largely given way to noisy street protests and megaphone politics, keeping Egypt off balance and ill equipped to deal with a looming economic crisis.

Lamia Kamel, a spokeswoman for Moussa, said the opposition factions were still discussing whether to boycott the referendum or call for a "no" vote.

"Both paths are unwelcome because they really don't want the referendum at all," she said, but predicted a clearer opposition line if the plebiscite went ahead as planned.

Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Muslim Brotherhood's spokesman, said the opposition could stage protests, but should keep the peace.

"They are free to boycott, participate or say no; they can do what they want. The important thing is that it remains in a peaceful context to preserve the country's safety and security."

The army stepped into the conflict on Saturday, telling all sides to resolve their disputes via dialogue and warning that it would not allow Egypt to enter a "dark tunnel".

The continuing disruption is also casting doubts on the government's ability to push through tough economic reforms that form part of a proposed $4.8 billion IMF loan agreement.

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Will Waterman, Mohammad Zargham and Jim Loney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/unknown-attackers-fire-cairo-protesters-nine-hurt-020511537.html

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The Music Man's Sister (Dixie Willson) ? Screenwriting from Iowa

?At one time Dixie and Meredith [Willson] were equally famous.?
Tom Longden
Des Moines Register 2004

MeredithWillson

When I took the tour last week of the childhood home of writer/composer Meredith Willson (The Music Man) I learned that he wasn?t the only writer in the family. His sister Dixie Willson (1890-1974) was a novelist and screenwriter. And it?s not just that she sold some books and earned some IMDB credits, she actually influenced one of the great American writers of our time.

Back in 2003 Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities) in the article The Books that Made the Writers in the Yale Alumni Magazine wrote some of the logical infleunces??Balzac ignited Zola? and then added:

?Speaking for myself, I was? galvanized? by a writer who never rated so much as a footnote to American literary history: Dixie Willson.

Dixie Willson wrote, and Maginel Wright Barney illustrated, a book called?Honey Bear?in 1923. My mother used to read it to me at bedtime long before I knew one letter of the alphabet from another. Over and over she read it to me. I was small, but like many people my age I had already mastered the art of having things my way. I had memorized the entire poem in the passive sense that I could tell whenever Mother skipped a passage in the vain hope of getting the 110th or 232nd reading over with a little sooner. Oh, no-ho-ho? there was no fooling His Majesty the Baby. He wanted it all. He couldn?t get enough of it.

Honey Bear?is a narrative poem about a baby kidnapped from a bassinet by a black bear. Maginel Wright Barney drew and painted in the japanais Vienna Secession style. To me, her pictures were pure magic. But?Honey Bear?s main attraction was Dixie Willson?s rollicking and rolling rhythm: anapestic quadrameter with spondees at regular intervals. One has to read it out loud in order to?be?there:

Once upon a summer in the hills by the river
Was a deep green forest where the wild things grew.
There were caves as dark as midnight?there were tangled trees and thickets
And a thousand little places where the sky looked through.

The Willson beat made me think writing must be not only magical but fun. It isn?t, particularly, but?Honey Bear?was fun, and I resolved then and there, lying illiterate on a little pillow in a tiny bed, to be a writer. In homage to Dixie Willson, I?ve slipped a phrase or two from?Honey Bear?into every book I?ve written. I tucked the fourth line, above, into the opening chapter of?The Right Stuff?(page 4) from memory as I described how not-yet-an-Astronaut Pete Conrad?s and his Jean Simmons-lookalike wife Jane?s little white brick cottage near Jacksonville Naval Air Base was set in a thick green grove of pine trees with ?a thousand little places where the sun peeks through.??Peeks? looked??Ah, well, hey ho??

There?s no question that Meredith?s successes outshone Dixie?s, but maybe they should change that sign at Meredith?s boyhood home to say ?Childhood home of Meredith and Dixie Willson.?

Scott W. Smith

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Source: http://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/the-music-mans-sister-dixie-willson/

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GOP throws Obama's old deficit stands back at him

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Some of the best Republican arguments against President Barack Obama's proposals to avoid a "fiscal cliff" come from the president himself, in comments he made months or years before his re-election.

Stung by the GOP's midterm election gains in 2010, Obama took stands that differ from his current positions on raising tax rates, adjusting Social Security and other topics now dominating Washington as a Dec. 31 deadline nears.

Sometimes gleefully, Republicans throw Obama's old words back at him. They portray him as inconsistent at best, insincere at worst.

The strategy has limits, however. Elections make a difference.

Obama signaled last year he would give ground on income tax rates and entitlement programs, after his fellow Democrats suffered what he called a "shellacking" in November 2010. Republicans took over the House, and the GOP saw Obama as vulnerable in 2012.

But he turned the tables last month. His party gained House and Senate seats, while he handily won a second term with a campaign that explicitly called for raising tax rates on incomes above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. Republicans have adamantly opposed higher tax rates for anyone.

Republicans can complain all they want, Obama supporters say: Democrats won the last election, so the ghosts of debates past are banished, and Obama's current positions are the ones that matter.

Nonetheless, Republicans keep reminding Americans of his previous positions, hoping for any edge in the partisan arguments over the fiscal cliff. The combination of major tax hikes and spending cuts will start affecting nearly every American in January if lawmakers and the White House can't reach a compromise deficit-reduction plan by Dec. 31.

The previous Obama positions that Republicans love to recount include:

? Tax revenues. At a July 2011 news conference, Obama said the government could increase such revenues by $1.2 trillion over 10 years without raising income tax rates. It could be done, he said, "by eliminating loopholes, eliminating some deductions and engaging in a tax reform process that could have lowered rates generally while broadening the base."

Republican leaders favor just such a policy of "tax reform" that lowers or maintains current income tax rates.

Earlier this month, however, Obama told business leaders that higher tax rates on the nation's wealthiest earners are essential to reaching necessary revenue targets. He's now asking for $1.6 trillion over 10 years, but lawmakers say a compromise of $1.2 trillion, or less, is possible.

"We're not insisting on rates just out of spite or out of any kind of partisan bickering, but rather because we need to raise a certain amount of revenue," Obama told members of the Business Roundtable.

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer calls Obama's revised views "situational mathematics."

? Social Security: Last year, Obama engaged in closed-door negotiations with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, seeking a "grand bargain" for deficit-reduction. The talks ultimately failed, but the two men staked out positions that still follow them.

Obama agreed to a less generous cost-of-living adjustment formula for Social Security, the popular but costly entitlement program for older Americans. He knew liberals would dislike it. But then, as now, Republicans said they would never agree to higher tax revenues without curbs on projected entitlement spending.

Now, the White House says Social Security should not be part of the fiscal cliff negotiations.

"We're prepared to, in a separate process, look at how to strengthen Social Security," Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said this month on ABC's "This Week." ''But not as part of a process to reduce the other deficits the country faces."

? New Revenue Target. In last year's "grand bargain" negotiations, Obama sought $1.2 trillion in new tax revenues over 10 years. But he signaled he could live with the $800 billion that Boehner proposed, if it accompanied a smaller batch of spending cuts.

Now, Obama says $1.6 trillion in new revenue is needed to help tame the nation's borrowing habits. Boehner is sticking with $800 billion.

Obama's $1.6 trillion, 10-year target came from his 2013 budget proposal, which Congress quickly killed. The president rarely mentioned the $1.6 trillion goal in his re-election campaign. In fact, Republicans say he left many voters the impression that what he really cared about was achieving $800 billion, mainly by raising tax rates on the wealthy.

Democrats reject the claim. But it hasn't stopped Republicans from accusing Obama of pulling a bait-and-switch.

The president's proposal "calls for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue, twice the amount you supported during the campaign," Boehner and others said in a letter to Obama this month.

? Tax Increase Ramifications. One of Obama's most revisited comments came in August 2009, before the 2010 GOP election triumphs and when U.S. unemployment was 9.7 percent. In an interview, he seemed to raise doubts about his own push to raise taxes on the wealthy.

"The last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would just suck up, take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole," the president said.

Technically, the recession had ended two months earlier. But even today, with unemployment at 7.7 percent, many Republicans and some economists say it's unwise to raise taxes.

"So we're not now in an official recession ? "just the worst recovery since World War II," said a recent op-ed piece in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, one of many such commentaries. "But now it's OK to raise taxes and put 'business in a further hole'?"

Boehner also must live with ghosts from the failed "grand bargain" talks of 2011. Chief among them is his willingness to generate $800 billion in new federal revenue over 10 years. Some conservatives call it overly generous.

"Speaker Boehner's $800 billion tax hike will destroy American jobs and allow politicians in Washington to spend even more," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

Democrats scoff. Their party prevailed in last month's elections, they say, so the ground has shifted in Obama's direction. For now, the Republicans can do little more than remind the president that he wasn't always so ambitious about raising new revenues.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-throws-obamas-old-deficit-stands-back-him-185857038.html

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Students try to make recycling fashionable

As one model powdered her face with some last-minute blush and another frantically tried to perfect her catwalk strut, a thin girl donning a tight, black trash bag started to panic backstage.

Mariah Reyes, one of the student designers, rushed over to comfort her jittery classmate.

"Four-second inhale, four-second exhale," Reyes said. "Remember, you look fabulous."

The Franklin High School sophomore had started counting the days until her school's Eco-Friendly Fashion Show weeks before it happened. Not only would it help raise awareness about one of her passions ? recycling ? but it would let her showcase some of her clothing designs.

There was Plastic Tactic, the short, puffy dress made entirely of Fresh & Easy grocery bags; Eco Paperlicious, a longer, pleated dress made of strips of newspaper; and Checkerbox Beauty, a form-fitting, strapless dress made of red-and-white checkered school snack boxes.

The school's Dream Project Club ? a group dedicated to finding solutions for global problems ? held the fashion show recently to raise awareness about environmental sustainability and to raise money for Superstorm Sandy victims. They asked each attendee to donate a dollar and made about $120.

In early 2008, riding the high of President Obama's first campaign, freshman health and life skills teacher Melinda Conde started searching for a way to facilitate change in the classroom. About this time, she met Kelly Sullivan Walden, the daughter of a teacher, who had created the kind of program Conde wanted to try.

After attending a United Nations conference six years ago, Walden designed a project that asks students to envision themselves as ambassadors tackling global issues.

The program, dubbed the Dream Project, focuses on eight goals the U.N. is striving to achieve by 2015. They include eradicating extreme hunger, promoting gender equality and ensuring environmental sustainability.

Celerity Educational Group, which operates eight charter schools in the area, adapted Walden's program into a curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grade.

At Franklin, Conde intertwines elements of the program into her freshman health lessons and leads the school's Dream Project Club, which started after a group of sophomores wanted a venue to continue working toward the goals they had set during her class.

Sophomore club member Remmy Seleuco, for example, is always on the lookout for ways to recycle.

When she overheard her younger brother mention throwing away a box of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, she stepped in. "I said, 'Hold up. Whoa,' " she recalled, through a proud smirk.

She salvaged the cards, taped several strips of them together into a corset and combined them with a puffy skirt made of a trash bag, which her friend modeled at the fashion show.

The small club is working to inform the student body.

At a recent club meeting, for example, members cut up strips of paper with facts to tack up around campus the week before the show. One read: "Most families throw away about 40 kg of plastic a year."

As Reyes glued together loops of magazine strips that would create a chain to decorate the sides of the runway, the club's vice president divvied up who would bring snacks to the show.

"What do you guys think about drinks?" Jenny Huang asked. "Just water?"

A girl in the front row shook her head and interjected: "If we do that, you can't do bottles."

Several students nodded in agreement.

"Instead of handing out water bottles, cause that's not very eco-friendly," Huang said, "we could get a metal canteen and fill up cups."

They ended up serving soy milk, a blended rice drink and almond milk ? all in cups, of course ? with seaweed and cupcakes.

Before the show, in the dimly lit locker room next to the auxiliary gym, Reyes began to stress. "Where are my models?" she asked.

A doe-eyed brunet rushed over. Reyes hugged Pamela Molina and then helped her into Plastic Tactic ? the dress made of grocery bags.

"Can you breathe?" Reyes asked, as she cinched the red ribbon holding the bags together around Molina's waist.

Molina nodded and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She twirled around and the plastic bags wafted up from her waist.

"I think I found my winter formal dress," she said, through a smile.

marisa.gerber@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/VqkdmV6l6Uk/la-me-fashion-show-20121210,0,3074461.story

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